BAASS' Project Colares/Brazil investigations

Historical perspective

In a blog article published in July 2024 I reviewed the interest of various individuals and organizations, in Brazilian UAP reports. One of these organizations was Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS.)

In trying to piece together just what BAASS' deployment to Brazil entailed, French researcher Marc Cecotti and myself contacted a number of individuals in Brazil, the USA, and other countries. Our findings were reported in a series of Blog articles:

* 7 April 2020 "BAASS team visited Brazil"

* 17 April 2020 "Further insights into BAASS in Brazil in 2009"

* 24 April 2020 "BAASS in Brazil: emails and more"

* 28 April 2020 "BAASS Program Managers held meetings in Brazil."

Overall, we were able to build up a fairly clear picture of just what occurred during the BAASS visit to Brazil, and the purpose of their deployment.

The "Ten Month Report"

Pages 393 and following of the report give a detailed view of the Colares UAP events from 1977-1978, and the BAASS visit of 2009:

"On May 25 2009 two teams, a north team and a south team, from BAASS deployed to Brazil. The purpose of the north team's trip was to meet with two Brazilian UFO organiszations and leaders, as well as follow upon recent UFO sightings reported by several news media outlets...The south team travelled to various locations in Brazil in order to establish professional relationships between BAASS and several prominent Brazilian UFO organizations and leaders. The trip involved two BAASS program managers and occurred during the period May 25, 2009 through June 3, 2009."

From the work of Marc Cecotti and myself we deduced that the south team was Douglas Kurth and James A. Johnson. The north team was Melissa Godoy, Tim Koonce, Loran Huffman and Lucas Gornichec.  

An introductory section, of the report on "Brazilian Related UAP Material/Bob Pratt's Colares Files" summarizes what was known about the 1977-1978 events on and around the Brazilian island of Colares, previously publicly available on the Brazilian Air Forces' Operation Plate, relying heavily on the comprehensive work of US reporter Bob Pratt who conducted onsite investigations.

BAASS extracted data from this wealth of material, to prepare a CAPELLA database of the events at Colares. Page 415 of the report lists the "Brazil UAP Research Materials" which BAASS collected. BAASS teams in 2009 collected their own material supplied by individuals and organizations in Brazil.

What was BAASS doing with all this material? Page 422; "BAASS' interest is to examine the relationship between advanced space technology and physiological effects."

In the future

"In the future it would be beneficial for a BAASS team to take an investigative trip to Brazil to gather more information and materials from specific witnesses and victims associated with the Colares events."

"BAASS would like to acquire the entire portfolio of the Colares area investigation, including any official assessment made by the Brazilian Air Force, Brazilian government, or potential foreign military or government evaluation and assessments."

In a section headed "Progress on BAASS outreach to South America" details are given that "BAASS began a systematic program to research the number and quality of organizations in South America that were focused on UAPs,'" and gives a list of such organizations and their contact details.

Vallee

Given that Jacques Vallee made a number of visits to Brazil to gather data I note the following comment in Vallee's "Forbidden Science: Volume 6" in entries dated 2 and 4 July 2015.

"In the last few days my exchanges with the project have taken a new tone. In Brazil the BAASS team was composed of six investigators who travelled across the country, interviewed 17 officials, including General Uchoa, and came back with a report that led to a conference at the Brazilian embassy in DC, attended by Hal, Colm and Eric all under Air Force 'sponsorship.' A security officer determined that distribution of the report, after review by a military group, would be closed.  Since I am the only one of the group who met with Colonel Hollanda Lima and was briefed afterwards by his top security staff inside the Air Force base where the project was managed, I stand confused by all the obvious discrepancies. Many unreported details were shared with us, and we saw the original, secret data. I could have flagged errors and misquotes in later years. Now, I can't even read 'our' full report, even though my friends confess 'it doesn't reflect reality.'''

"I confess lingering concern about the way the Brazil trip was handled, a missed opportunity. Apart from a partial listing of medical cases, what I've seen rehashes Bob Pratt's data, unaware of the details Bill Calvert and had been shown in 1988. Bureaucracy at work? Or  something more nefarious that will demand that we forget what we'd uncovered about the beings? "

 

The BAASS "Project Campus"

What was Project Campus?

Of all the BAASS projects, the one which has received the least attention was Project Campus. According to the BAASS "Ten Month Report:"

"The overarching objective of Project Campus was to stimulate, motivate and encourage the senior levels of the academic community within the United States to involve themselves in study and research of very advanced aerial spacecraft that is presently considered phenomenological."

As a "test case" BAASS approached senior management of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The university responded positively. BAASS proposed ten scenarios to task the university with

"Studying consequences to the media, economy, department of defense, political groups, science, the general public, religion, public health and academia in the United States."

These scenarios ranged from multiple witness sightings, to announcements by the United States Air Force, or U.S. government officials, that UAP were real and extraterrestrial. The end result of the BAASS approach to the university 

"...was that Dr. Smith and four others have expressed strong interest in submitting a specific proposal to BAASS by August 2009."

Request for proposals

BAASS also sought other Request for Proposal (RFP) from:

* Battelle Memorial Institute

* Southwestern Research Institute

* Center for American Progress

* Sandia National Laboratories.

 The proposed budget for this research was $400,000.

The introduction of the RFP included "For the purpose of the proposed study we take the presence of such advanced exotic aerospace craft as a given."  The study would address three major issues:

1. "First, based on an-in-depth analysis of historical records, current data and political will, what is the likelihood that by 2050 there will be confirmation to the public by the U.S. government and its military authorities that aerospace craft whose technological capabilities are beyond those of our own most advanced military craft do indeed exist and traverse our air space at will? What are seen as the preconditions for such confirmation, and the probability that they would be made?"

2. "Second, under an assumption that such confirmation does occur by 2050, what would be a recommended course of action as to an optimal format for such confirmation? What realistically could be expected to be its effects, first on the military sector that is charged with defending our national airspace against intrusion by craft of unknown origin, and secondly on the U.S. body politic in the areas of commerce, religion, academia and so forth?"

3. "Third, if in the above analyses it becomes clear that, even in the timeframe approaching 2050 official (and especially military) considerations of a stance of publicly acknowledged material co-existence is almost certain to remain fraught with conflicting irresolvable viewpoints...what steps might be taken in the interim in the public sector by influential leaders and by organizations to ameliorate the potential deleterious effects of possibly unforeseen culture shock, to 'soften the societal blow' so to speak?"

As at the date of publication of the BAASS "Ten Month Report:"

"BAASS has not received a reply from CAP or SWRI regarding the RFP. Sandia National Laboratories volunteered that they did not have the expertise for the project and Battelle Memorial Institute declined the RFP."

National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS)

Questions such as the three above, were of interest to Robert Bigelow, long before BAASS was established in 2008. Prior to BAASS, Robert Bigelow had created the National Institute for Discovery Science (1996-2004.)

According to Jacques Vallee's book "Forbidden Science: Volume 4" page 324, in an entry dated 4 August 1996 making reference to a meeting of the NIDS Science Advisory Board:

"Another notion discussed at this meeting was that of 'The Day After: What would happen if the government was to announce Alien intrusions? Has there been a 50 year program of indoctrination of earthlings?"

Later from page 439 of the same book, in an entry dated 9 January 1999. "Bob Bigelow is still fascinated with 'Day After' scenarios."

Comment: A 'Day After' scenario poses the question , what would be the effect on human society the day following a major event, such as what happens if a large asteroid collides with the planet? or the U.S. government announces that UAP are real and are extraterrestrial spacecraft?

I wrote an article "NIDS and the 'Day after' scenarios" back in December 2019, which includes links to historical NIDS documents on such questions.

The process of analysis of materials, by BAASS

Background

I am continuing my examination of the recently released BAASS "Ten Month Report." Prior to obtaining this copy, it was general knowledge that as part of their investigations, BAASS was looking to gather and analyse both biological and non-biological samples/materials. However, little was known, in the open literature, of the processes involved. 

It wasn't until 2018 that, in a blog post dated 6 November 2018 I reported that the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had, in 2010, entered a contract with BAASS to provide analysis services.  The announcement was made in a Spring 2010 Newsletter titled "HRVeNews-2020, Spring." Page 3 carried a short item which read:

"The Nuclear Materials Group (lead: Dr Thomas Hartmann) has established a formal collaboration with the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). The collaboration provides analytical assistance to BAASS for characterizing solid phases and precipitates."

French researcher Mark Cecotti, whom I worked with on several articles about BAASS, wrote to Dr Hartmann, in April 2020, and asked him about the work with BAASS. In response Dr Hartmann wrote, inter alia:

"I was looking through my data and noticed that we have indeed analyzed samples for BAASS represented by Colm Kelleher...However, this sample analysis was never framed into a formal collaboration between BAASS and UNLV by a contract administered through the UNLV office of sponsored programs. However, we performed solid phase analysis and elemental analysis of about a dozen samples including a 50-page report, as a teaser project and in hope for a formal collaboration in the future."

Dr. Hartmann was unable to locate that 50-oage report, but went on to comment:

"So he provided us with some spheres which turned out to be ion exchange beads. Or a rock sample with traces of hydraulic fluid...Further we analyzed some brown liquid in a plastic bottle which did not contain poison but was just muddy water."

Companies who might conduct analyses 

Now, thanks to pages 35-36 o the "Ten Month Report" we are aware of 10 other companies which BAASS had listed under "Identification of Laboratories for Independent Analyses" for "Chemical Analysis, Materials Characterization." Plus 3 companies listed under " Microbial Analyses."

One interesting process, of which I hadn't heard of, was titled "Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy  Analysis of Fingernails." "This is a technology whereby estimates of a radiation dose (dosimetry) received by an individual can be determined after an event."

Did BAASS utilise the analysis resources other than the University of Nevada, Las Vegas? Pages 54-82 of the "Ten Month Report" provide details of seven instances where BAASS investigators were deployed to visit the location of sightings. One of these came from a referral by a journalist; one from the DIA, and two from MUFON. The source of referral for the other three cases isn't provided. Reading through the case information reveals that in only one instance, i.e. Marathon, TX on 9 June 2009, was physical evidence gathered, namely fingernail clippings. However, no details of any analysis conducted were given.